To lose one pound per week, you need to reach a total calorie deficit of about 3500 calories per week or 500 calories per day. To lose two pounds per week, you need to double that number. So you need to reach a 1000-calorie per day deficit or 7000 calories per week. Sound complicated? It’s not too hard, once you get the hang of it. And you can use a calculator like this one to figure out how many calories you should be eating for weight loss.

Budgeting your calories is like budgeting money. Weight loss author Mandy Levy explains it perfectly. “Calories add up to pounds just as spare change adds up to a dollar. A dollar, or one hundred cents, can be distributed in many ways: 100 pennies, 20 nickels, 10 dimes, 4 quarters…and countless combinations thereof. There are just as many ways to distribute your calories.” If you can budget your calories to come up “short” by 500-1000 calories each day, you’ll lose weight.

Creative Ways to Reach a Calorie Deficit

The math is simple, but changing your habits to eat less and move more is hard. So, to take some of the guesswork out of the process, Mandy and I put our heads together and came up with 10 simple ways to create a 500 to 1000 calorie deficit each day.

Each point below contains a creative calorie “budgeting” combination to help you reach your goal. You’ll see options for a 500-calorie per day deficit to lose one pound per week or a 1000-calorie per day deficit to lose two pounds per week. As always, calorie counts are estimates, so your exact numbers may vary. And each activity or food swap must result in a deficit. That means you can’t compensate for your diet-friendly behavior with extra food or naptime. But each combination should put you one step closer to reaching your goal.

The Morning Cleanse + Couch Workout

500-Calorie Deficit to Lose 1 Pound per Week

“Start your program with a tiny cleanse,” suggests Mandy. “On your first day of your healthy diet plan, swap out your breakfast (250 calories) and your mid-morning snack (150 calories) for two Evolution Fresh Sweet Greens & Lemon juices (100 calories each) that you’ll find at any Starbucks.” Then by noon, you will already have reached a 200-calorie deficit. To reach a full 500-calorie deficit, get active when you watch TV in the evening. Believe or not, a super-fun living room workout can burn 300 calories or more.

1000-Calorie Deficit to Lose 2 Pounds per Week

At lunch and dinner, skip the starch. Don’t each chips with your sandwich at lunchtime and skip the baked potato with your dinner. The starch itself isn’t necessarily a huge calorie expense. A baked potato, for example, only provides 150-200 calories. But the toppings that you add can easily total several hundred more.

READ MORE: Hormones that sabotage your weight loss

The No-Excuses Workout

500-Calorie Deficit to Lose 1 Pound per Week

“Go to the gym!” says Mandy. It sounds simple, but we all come up with reasons to avoid it. “Don’t make excuses,” she says. Mandy suggests that you choose fat-burning cardio exercises that you can quantify so you know exactly how many calories you are burning during your session. Set a goal to burn at least 300 calories. “Time your visit to the gym with your favorite TV show (or TV marathon) so that when you’re running or walking on the treadmill or elliptical, you can just zone out and rack up the miles.”

Then instead of rewarding yourself with dessert, skip the sweets and reward yourself with an additional 200 calorie deficit to reach your total 500-calorie deficit for the day.

1000-Calorie Deficit to Lose 2 Pounds per Week

At lunchtime, skip the bread on your sandwich and wrap it in lettuce instead. Iceberg or bib lettuce works well. Some dieters even use a hollowed out cucumber instead of bread. And since you don’t have bread, you won’t need the usual condiments either. Without bread and mayo, you’ve cut your lunch total by 250 calories.

To burn an extra 250 calories, jack up the speed or increase the incline when you’re on your cardio machine at the gym. Just a small adjustment can add up to an extra 200-300 calories during your workout.

Saturday Night Savings

500-Calorie Deficit to Lose 1 Pound per Week

You can easily save calories when you go out with friends. For a diet-friendly restaurant meal, Mandy suggests that you bring your own…whatever. “Bring your own low-cal salad dressings, condiments, cheeses, and other accouterments out to dinner with you,” she says. “You’ll save beaucoup calorie bucks. Who cares if you look like Mary Poppins extracting all these treasures from your purse? You’re about to be skinny!” And tell the waiter to skip the bread. Without bread or high calorie sauces and dressings, you’ll easily save 500 calories (or more).

1000-Calorie Deficit to Lose 2 Pounds per Week

You can also save mega calories by skipping the booze. In fact, you can easily lose weight if you give up drinking either temporarily or permanently. Each drink contains anywhere from 100-300 calories or more. Add an hour on the dance floor and along with your diet-friendly restaurant meal, you’ve reached a 1000-calorie deficit for the day.

Party With Your Pooch

500-Calorie Deficit to Lose 1 Pound per Week

Your dog is the perfect weight loss coach. He’s always ready to help you burn calories to slim down. To burn 250 calories, take your pooch for a brisk one-hour walk.

Then after your calorie-controlled dinner, enjoy an “imposter” dessert. “One of my favorite desserts is my Taffy Apple, says Mandy. She combines a 60-calorie Sugar-Free Caramel Snack Pack with an 80-calorie crisp Granny Smith apple. This 140 calorie dessert is nearly 300 calories lighter than a typical bowl of ice cream, so you’ll not only reach a 500 calorie deficit, you’ll actually exceed it.

1000-Calorie Deficit to Lose 2 Pounds per Week

To turn your dog walking session into a dog workout, take your pooch to the park for a parcourse workout. You’ll find these fit trails at many local parks and community centers. It’s a great way to burn calories and build strength.

The Math and Miles Plan

500-Calorie Deficit to Lose 1 Pound per Week

One simple way to make sure you are reaching your calorie deficit each day is to calculate your BMR. Your BMR or basal metabolic rate is the number of calories your body needs to perform basic functions like breathing. If you eat only that number of calories and then walk about five miles throughout the day, you should reach a 500-calorie deficit. “Walking to work, running on a treadmill, taking an evening stroll, choosing the stairs, doing housework, chasing after your kids, it all counts,” says Mandy. Get an activity monitor and track movement. “Five miles is easier to accomplish than you’d think, especially if you’re somewhat active already. This is the healthiest system, and the steady vision to aim for.”

1000-Calorie Deficit to Lose 2 Pounds per Week

If you are already quite active during the day, add more movement. You can turn your housecleaning chores into a workout to tidy up and tone up at the same time. Or turn your evening stroll into an interval walking workout. Intervals are a great way to improve fitness and burn more fat.

Drink Water at Work

500-Calorie Deficit to Lose 1 Pound per Week

Drink water instead of typical flavored beverages to save hundreds of calories during the day. Beverages like soda, flavored coffee, and even sports beverages are filled with sugar and other fattening ingredients. And some of those drinks contain hundreds of calories. Head to the water cooler instead to reach a 500-calorie deficit.

1000-Calorie Deficit to Lose 2 Pounds per Week

Burn an extra 500 calories by completing a one-hour stair climbing workout. If that sounds too challenging, don’t worry. You don’t even need a gym membership to complete this workout. In fact, you can lose weight at work with this simple routine. Just take hourly breaks and walk the stairs for 7-10 minutes. After several sessions, you’ll have a full one-hour workout completed.

Burn Calories With the Kids

500-Calorie Deficit to Lose 1 Pound per Week

Got kids at home? Put them to work? Kids love to play games and they love to run around. So put that boundless energy to work. Take the kids to the park for a game of tag. This interval style workout can burn 300-400 calories in an hour.  Then head to the playground equipment for a family-friendly workout to reach your complete 500-calorie deficit.

1000-Calorie Deficit to Lose 2 Pounds per Week

Pack a healthy picnic to bring to the park but keep your calories in control by cutting all of your portions in half. If you do this during two of your meals during the day you can cut another 400-500 calories to reach the calorie deficit you need to lose 2 pounds per week.

Use Slimming Smoothies

500-Calorie Deficit to Lose 1 Pound per Week

Meal replacements are an easy way to cut 500 calories from your daily intake. If you replace one or two meals with a lean smoothie, you should reach your goal. But you have to make a diet-friendly smoothie. That means you don’t just throw a bunch of ingredients into the blender and hope for the best. A green smoothie is a great option. It combines spinach, apple, banana, and protein powder. It doesn’t sound great, but you’ll love it.

1000-Calorie Deficit to Lose 2 Pounds per Week

Do mini workouts today to burn another 500 calories. Do four intense 5-minute weight loss workout sessions to burn an extra 400 calories. Just make sure you exercise hard enough to take advantage of the full calorie burn. The bonus is that after this style of workout, you actually burn more calories for the rest of the day because of a metabolism-boosting effect called EPOC.

Snack Smarter for Weight Loss

500-Calorie Deficit to Lose 1 Pound per Week

Calories from daily snacks can total more than the calories you consume at mealtime. Those little nibbles add up! So to reduce your caloric intake by 500 calories, replace your snacks with a single serving of a fresh fruit or vegetable. You can also eliminate the snacks altogether. Believe it or not, snacking is not required when you’re trying to lose weight. In fact, it can actually cause weight gain in some dieters.

1000-Calorie Deficit to Lose 2 Pounds per Week

Hate hard workouts? No problem! Burn an extra 500 calories with two easier (but longer) workouts during the day. Schedule an early morning walk for an hour in the morning and then again in the evening. Each workout should burn roughly 250 calories.

When in Doubt…

Each of these strategies combines an exercise solution with a food strategy to reach your calorie deficit goal, But, let’s face it. There will be days when you can’t complete both or even one of these specific tasks to reach your weight loss goal. And that’s okay. When in doubt, simply eat a bit less. Cut your food portions in half, eliminate sauces and spreads, and drink water. These three simple steps will reduce your caloric intake on a daily and weekly basis.


What matters most is consistency. If you have a bad day, laugh it off, and get back on track tomorrow. “Dieting sucks—we all know that,” says Mandy. “But attitude is everything and success can be a long-ish journey. The least you can do is have a little fun getting there.” 

Are you intrigued by those Internet ads claiming to know “the secret to shedding belly fat” or “the one trick to losing belly fat”? If so, you’re not alone. Americans spend countless hours and billions of dollars trying anything and everything to attain a flat stomach.

3. Go Mediterranean

The popular “flat belly diets” embrace much of the wisdom found in eating a Mediterranean diet, which helps everything from brain health to hearth health. The basic premise for both diets is eat foods rich in monosaturated fatty acids (MUFA) that may help reduce your belly fat storage. MUFA-rich foods include olive oil, nuts and seeds, avocados, and fish. Eating yogurt regularly has also been found to be helpful in reducing belly fat.

Another diet trend that promises results when it comes to belly fat: the apple cider vinegar diet. While animal studies have been promising, current research in humans has yet to show impressive results. The data supporting the benefits of the Mediterranean diet, however, are real and cause for making some dietary changes.

4. Front-load your meal

Start your meal, especially your largest meal, with seasoned vegetables, be it vegetable soup or the vegetables on your entrée plate. And remember that vegetables should always comprise at least half of your plate and be a mix of starchy (like potatoes) and nonstarchy ones (your leafy greens, broccoli, etc.).

Eating the vegetables first will leave less room for other foods that aren’t as healthy, because vegetable fiber is filling.

5. Commit to a physical lifestyle

The single most important thing people can do to prevent the buildup of belly fat and get rid of existing bellyfat is commit to physical activity, and better yet, a physical lifestyle.

For both men and women, the first fat you lose when you exercise is visceral fat.

In a way, moderate-intensity physical activity is that “magic pill” a lot of people are looking for, because the health benefits go beyond keeping your waistline trim: Not only can it reduce your risk of cancer, stroke, diabetes and heart attacks, but studies have shown that physical activity can significantly improve the moods of patients with major depressive disorders.


Simply walking briskly an hour each day can have an impact by boosting your metabolism, as can adding an incline to your treadmill routine.

6. Move around, fidget

7. And try not to sit too much

Studies have shown that people who sit eight to nine hours a day, even if they exercise the recommended 150 minutes per week, do not get the same benefits of exercising as people who are more active throughout the day.

If you have to sit most of the day for your job, try to find some ways to move:

8. Redefine ‘rest’

Having an active hobby — and if you don’t already have one, developing one — is important. Get engaged in some kind of sport, whether it’s a group activity or something you can do alone. Essentially, if an activity is pleasant to you, you’ll continue to do it.

If your leisure time involves sitting around on the sofa or in a chair, you might actually be offsetting the positive health effects of exercising even if you’re working out regularly.

Unfortunately, the general understanding of rest is relaxing in front of TV or dining out — what we call “passive rest.” But really, our rest should consist of sleep, and our leisure time should consist of fun physical activity, which is active rest.

Statistics suggest that out of 900 months in his life, the average man in the U.S. spends approximately 198 months watching TV, five months complaining about his boss, and five months waiting on hold.

Think of the other things you could do with those 208 months of your life. You could find activities that are better for your health and will help keep the belly fat away.

9. Don’t rely on sit-ups to give you a six-pack

Unfortunately, sit-ups and crunches can’t eliminate visceral fat directly. You can’t reduce fat from specific parts of your body by exercising that body part; our bodies simply don’t work that way.

With sit-ups or other abdominal exercises, you’re toning the abdominal muscles but not burning intra-abdominal fat. The key is to lower your overall body fat with moderate-intensity physical activity and a healthy diet; when you reduce your total body fat, you’ll also be reducing your belly fat.

So if you want to do abdominal exercises, make them part of your fitness routine. Just don’t treat them as a substitute for the recommended 150 minutes of weekly moderate-intensity physical activity.

10. Develop more muscle

While sit-ups can’t “target” belly fat, what they can do is help you burn calories, strengthen your core and develop more muscle. Because muscle is more metabolically active than fat, the more muscle you have, the more calories you’ll burn when you’re at rest.


Burning those extra calories can help you achieve and maintain a healthier weight in conjunction with regular cardiovascular exercise and a healthy diet.

11. Get some sleep

A recent study of 70,000 individuals showed that those getting less than five hours of sleep were more likely to gain 30 or more pounds.

The bottom line is that when it comes to belly fat, the answer is not in fad diet. Enjoying a healthy lifestyle should be the focus. The benefits will last a lifetime. 

To learn more about how to lose 16pounds in 20days, check out our free guide here and discover the secret

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B. Cortisol 

Cortisol (also known as your “stress hormone”) is one of the most important hormones in your body because without it, you couldn’t handle stress. It regulates your “fight or flight” response, and exists as a survival mechanism—it is triggered when you are in danger and is meant to be released in small doses and for short lengths of time. It serves its purpose when you need to kick into high gear. It increases your blood sugars and blood pressure. You can thank cortisol for the surge of energy you get when you are being chased by a tiger. Because cortisol causes your blood sugars to rise, any time you are stressed out, you have elevated blood sugars, so it’s as if you’re eating high amounts of sugary foods all day long. As we just discussed, this causes insulin—your fat storing hormone—to come out to do its job of transporting sugar from your bloodstream to your cells to be stored as fat. And, well, you see where that can lead. This is how you gain weight when you’re stressed...independent of your nutrition...without even eating any more, less, or differently!

How to keep cortisol balanced: Manage your stress. I know…easier said than done. But the reality is that stress is the enemy of a balanced hormonal system. In short, when your body is stressed, it shifts its resources to make cortisol, your stress hormone, and and other hormones such as the sex hormones, like estrogen and progesterone, suffer. (That explains why you might notice a low sex drive when you’re stressed out.) Take time out to deep breathe, go for a walk, journal for a few minutes, talk to a counselor, take stress-reducing supplements, and make it a priority to keep your stress in check.

You should also check out this simple free guide on how to lose

16pounds in 20days with a system plans.

C and D) Estrogen and Testosterone 

These are BIG ones. Estrogen is what we often think of as our female hormone and testosterone our male hormone. A lot of people don’t realize that both sexes have both hormones, and that estrogen dominance can occur in both men and women. Testosterone tends to be converted into estrogen when men and women gain weight, and problems arise when estrogen levels are out of balance. This can easily happen when we are under stress, eating processed foods, consuming soy, not getting enough sleep, taking hormones (like the birth control pill), and also when we’re exposed to estrogen-like compounds found in plastic and styrofoam. These problems continue to pile up if we aren’t doing anything to eliminate the negative effects. When estrogen levels are too high, we see an increase in the prevalence of breast cancer (in both women AND men!), infertility, low libido and weight gain. Women specifically can suffer from endometriosis, excessive PMS, perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms when their hormones are out of whack.

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